School Shooting. Taft Union High School in Kern County is closed this morning, one day after a 16-year-old opened fire with a shotgun in a classroom and critically injured a peer. Authorities he’ll be charged with attempted murder. The teen allegedly targeted two boys who he claimed bullied him. One of those boys – a football player – is the injured student. He’s expected to undergo surgery today. Sheriff’s officials credit a teacher and school counselor with defusing the situation by convincing the student to put down the gun. The attack comes less than a month after a gunman killed 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Connecticut. And it occurred just moments after school officials instructed students on new emergency procedures. Bakersfield Californian

Gun summit. Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet today with representatives of the video game industry as he continues to look for ways to reduce gun violence in response to the Connecticut shootings. Biden is leading a task force that will make recommendations on curbing gun violence to President Obama next week. Yesterday, the vice president met with the Motion Picture Association of America and a handful of entertainment company executives. He also met with the National Rifle Association and other gun groups. It’s unclear what recommendations Biden will make on how to address depictions of violence in the media. Washington Post

Budget banter. Grade schools, higher education and social services for the poor appear to be the biggest winners in Governor Jerry Brown’s budget. The governor’s spending plan is the first in years that puts the state in the black, but that doesn’t mean that the Sacramento will be free from budget battles. Some lawmakers are already looking to restore funding to pet programs – moves the governor is vowing to oppose. Brown’s plan calls for a $2.7 billion increase in spending for K-12 schools, enough to restore funding to pre-recession levels. The governor also wants to change the formula for funding schools to shift more money to struggling campuses in low-income areas. The governor is also proposing a $500 million increase to the University of California and Cal State University systems. Sacramento Bee
Zai jian Grauman’s. A Chinese company is paying big bucks to get its name on L.A.’s famed Chinese Theatre. The L.A. Times reports Chinese TV maker TCL will pay more than $5 million for a decade of naming rights at the Hollywood Boulevard landmark. That’s more than twice what it cost businessman Sid Grauman to build the movie palace in 1927. It will now be called the TLC Chinese Theatre. It’s not the first time Grauman’s name has been jettisoned. The Mann chain purchased the theater in the 1970s. For three decades, it bore the name Mann’s Chinese Theatre. The Grauman name was restored several years ago. L.A. Times

Mayoral money. Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel are neck and neck as they fight for a cash advantage in the upcoming L.A. mayor’s race. Garcetti raised $727,000 and Greuel $672,000 in the final quarter of 2012. Both have now raised more than $4 million for their campaigns. Councilwoman Jan Perry raised $157,000 in the last quarter and remains a distant third in the money race. Kevin James, the sole Republican among the major contenders, has not released fundraising numbers for the last quarter. L.A. Times

National recognition. President Obama has signed a bill designating central California’s Pinnacles National Monument as national park. Pinnacles covers 26 thousand acres in the Salinas Valley and includes volcanic rock formations, caves and a wilderness area where biologists have released California condors as part of a program aimed at bringing the birds back from the brink of extinction. San Jose Mercury News